The Only Exception,' Holmesbury

Five: Benjamin Bennette

enola rushed to the house of her love and hastily knocked on the door.

"come on... come on, please answer..." she whimpered.

not long after, the young lord opened his door to find enola, but she did not look as happy as she usually did when she would visit him.

"enola? what's—"

enola quickly hugged tewkesbury tightly, sobbing into his chest as she felt him still with worry.

tewkesbury quickly cupped her cheeks as he hastily questioned. "what's wrong?! what's wrong?!" he pleaded.

enola just hugged him again and continued to sob.

tewkesbury was not expecting his favorite person to knock on his door and sob into his arms today.

god, what happened?

he quickly led enola to his couch.

as she continued to sob, he hushed her.

"you're alright..." he tried to console her.

she sniffed and sat down next to him as he rushed to put his forehead on hers.

"enola, i'm going to need you to tell me what's wrong. are you hurt? did someone hurt you? did—" he cut himself off when he noticed he was rambling.

enola tried to steady her cries.

"my... my father, h-he was terrible..." she put on a disgusted look.

"h-he abused her! my mother! he hurt her! he betrayed her!" she cried.

tewkesbury now understood.

"oh enola..."

he never saw her cry like this before.

"i was so excited to learn more about him... but he was nothing like how i've always dreamed of." she cried.

"god! i'm so weak, i never cry. i'm sorry, i'll be on my way now..." she said, as if she hadn't just arrived at tewkesbury's door and sobbed and broke in his arm.

just as she stood up tewkesbury grabbed her arm gently.

"no enola! you're not weak! don't ever say that!" his voice cracked.

"enola, you're the bravest, most beautiful, most intelligent, generous, perfect human i've ever known! you're amazing and i will not sit here and let you speak just things of yourself, enola!" he gestured to her.

he laid on the couch and opened his arms. "come here."

enola slowly walked over to him and snuggled up to him with a frown permanently painted on her face.

"no one expects this enola, you just wanted to learn more about your father, you didn't know what happened." he said in a soft whisper as he looked down at her.

enola sniffled. "i hate him..." she muttered.

"and you have every reason to..." tewkesbury said honestly.

he couldn't imagine how a man could treat his wife in such a way.

he could never see himself hurting enola, that is a possibility that will never happen.

"are you going to to continue to work on finding more about him?" tewkesbury asked.

"i don't know." enola answered truthfully.

she honestly didn't know.

she didn't really want to know anything anymore.

                                            ♥︎

enola was taking a walk on a path that she would go on when she needed time to think.

she's walked this path many times...

when she was just nine and she got picked on for carrying around dash, when her mother first left her, when tewkesbury began writing her dozens of letters, when sherlock had reprimanded her for punching a stranger that called her a name, and now... her father...

the list could really go on.

"i think you've just ought to forget about him." the girl beside her answered.

"he was terrible and is not worth the stress." she locked arms with enola.

"i know, jo." enola smiled weakly.

"i hate him, but... i wish it wasn't like this." enola mumbled.

jo smiled sympathetically.

"well, we should—"

"excuse me young lady?" a man that seemed to be in his mid forties suddenly spoke to enola as he walked past the duo.

enola furrowed her eyebrows. "me?"

the man smiled. "yes, are you... enola holmes?"

enola gave a look to jo before nodding slowly.

the man let out a sound of recognition."ha, i knew you looked familiar, you went to my ball not long ago." he made eye contact with jo. "and you too..." he seemed less enthusiastic with that statement.

enola then realized. "oh! yes benjamin bennett."

"so... is everything alright? need a detectives help?" she let out a small awkward laugh.

"no, no uh..." he looked around him.

"just uhh... thought i'd say hello." he smiled.

enola furrowed her eyebrows. "oh... o-okay..." she made another look towards jo.

jo started to lead enola way. "well, nice chat but we best get on our way, bye! tell your family we said hello!" jo spoke quickly as she dragged enola away.

"that was weird..." enola mumbled.

"very... he seems odd. did you even talk to him at the ball? how do you know him?" jo asked, seeming to be put off by the situation.

"i don't know him, really... i know of him. and we didn't even speak at the ball!" enola exclaimed.

jo clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "huh..."

the two walked the rest of the paths arms locked as they discussed about the weird in counter.

enola would surely have to keep her eyes on him...

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super short chapter